There must have been ten or twelve tables, and they all tasted remarkably similar, with upfront aromas and flavors of strawberry…one after the other. Example: a few years ago at the New York Wine Experience, Wine Spectator Senior Editor Bruce Sanderson and I sampled down a whole row of California Pinot Noirs. Of course, Oregon is best known for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and maybe consumers have become a bit tired of the “typical” California style of these varietals. So it might be a good idea to look ahead a bit, especially considering the recent global situation, and try to divine what might be in store for wine lovers in the coming months.įirst, industry professionals have noted a trend toward wines from Oregon and Washington State. Now, we’re back to the more buttery styles. Then the fashion tilted back the other way, and people developed a taste for purer, more fruit-forward flavor profiles. A few years back, most California Chardonnays were subjected to heavy oak treatment. Wines go in and out of style (consider the recent craze for rosés, and the popularity of Prosecco), and new winegrowing regions catch the attention (and the dollars) of wine buyers. Like most pursuits and professions, the wine world is ever-changing. My favorite introductory book is The Wine Bible by Karen Macneil. Go to tastings and wine dinners where people speak about the wines being poured. This causes a lot of aspiring wine lovers to throw up their hands in disgust and go back to beer. About all producers are required to list is their name, the place where it’s made, how much is in the bottle, and the alcohol content. Fact is, no consumer product in the world gives us less information than the label on a wine bottle. We’re all faced with the problem of looking at restaurant wine list, or gazing upon the selection in a wine store, and trying to figure out what to try next. You don’t need to be able to name the ten wine districts of Beaujolais, or the five wines allowed in the Bordeaux blend, to increase your understanding and appreciation, but a little effort – and a little knowledge - can go a long way. There are hundreds of grape varietals, and hundreds of places – some well-known and some quite obscure – where wine is made. And if you ever hear somebody say “it’s a naïve little Burgundy without much breeding, but I’m sure you’ll be amused by its presumption,” well, no jury in the world will convict you if you shoot him. Problem is, cork dorks who discourse over dinner about the 500-year history of what’s in the bottle can become boring at best. It brings to us what we bring to it, so why not bring as much as we can? Only worse.īut on the other hand, a bit of wine knowledge and understanding can be rewarding. Those who succumb to and pursue an interest in wine can sooner or later become the same way. Any hobby, passion, or obsession we pursue takes up a chunk of our lives, and when we get jacked about something, we want to share. It’s a well-recognized danger of the wine life: a practically inevitable propensity to become a grape geek. The topic fascinates many of us, but there’s always a danger that fascination can become obsession, and then…snobbery. Since winemaking has been practiced for well over three thousand years (almost certainly more), the world of wine has become a very big place. Wine is a cultural artifact, and it communicates something about where the grapes were grown and about the people who made it. It’s a sacrament to some of the world’s major religions, and, in the last thousand years or so, has become part of what we usually call the finer things in life. The making of wine is an incredibly ancient pursuit. Thanks to the accident of fermentation, a lot of people got happy. The fruit got crushed and the yeast on the skins acted on the juice, which spoiled in the most delightful way. One day, countless thousands of years ago, somebody put a bunch of grapes into some kind of bowl.
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